COP26 president designate eager for Bangladesh visit to see ‘inspiring’ work on climate change
COP26 President Designate Alok Sharma is expecting to visit Bangladesh as soon as possible in order to witness first-hand the inspiring work Bangladesh was doing to tackle climate change.
He said this during a session of the UK-Bangladesh Climate Partnership Forum virtual series, managed by Mott MacDonald in partnership with Overseas Development Institute (ODI) on behalf of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the British High Commission in Dhaka ahead of COP26 in Glasgow this November.
Alok Sharma, UK secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, explored how the UK and Bangladesh can work together to tackle climate change by highlighting three critical issues.
These are finance flow, improving the quality of that finance and increasing sums for adaptation, and making finance more accessible, said a statement from the British Commission in Dhaka yesterday.
As one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, Bangladesh has experienced first-hand the devastating impact it can have on people, environment and economy. The country has become a global leader on adapting to a changing climate and since 2016 has invested more than $6 billion dollars into adaptation activities.
Sharma highlighted practical ways to address those issues and noted that the UK has itself committed £11.6bn for international climate finance (over the next six fiscal years) and is advocating for other donors to make commitments too.
"Climate finance is a central priority for the COP26 presidency and as hosts we are calling on all donors to increase their finance commitments and play their part in delivering on our shared $100 billion goal," he said.
"It is vital that those who can should step up support to help countries reduce emissions and adapt to the rising impacts of climate change."
Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen reaffirmed Bangladesh's commitment to build resilience to tackle climate change, while seeking support from UK and other developed countries to ensure concessional finance and access to technology for all developing countries, and LDCs, especially due to the unprecedented socio-economic impacts of Covid-19.
"We need another fund for climate migrants. Each year hundreds and thousands of people are being uprooted from their homes… country governments alone cannot cope with the costs of rehabilitation. Therefore, the global leadership could come forward to create another climate migrant fund."
Professor Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCAD), chaired the session.
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